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. 29th June. A Drowning at Kerryhead

HQA005

29th June 1964; A photo taken at Kerryhead where 26 year old Pat O'Connor of Meenogohane Causeway and Sargeant William McCarthy of Ballyheigue came to the rescue with a twenty foot canoe of two Dublin Merchant Seamen. The Dublin men, James Whelan and John Tyrell, had to abandon a disabled fishing vessel they had been ferrying from Kilronan, Aran to Dingle when the engine failed off Loop Head on Sunday evening. The boat drifted all night and though the men lighted tyres, threw up flares and hoisted a distress flag, nobody went to their assistance. When the boat struck the rocks at Bird's Island, the men put on life jackets and drifted for over two hours in the rough seas until picked up. By then John Tyrell was unconscious. He received artificial respiration but he died without regaining consciousness. The jury at the inquest returned a verdict of asphixia due to drowning as the cause of death.